All day on Route 66!

Boots Motel Carthage, MO. Book your room now they’re restoring them right and have limited availability.

The rain had stopped in Edmond OK while we slept and Route 66 was waiting. Our first stop was the Round Barn in Arcadia. When we walked inside we ran into a couple guys from the Midpoint Tuesday. It turns out Jeff lives near the top of the Cajon Pass (near us) and His cousin Bob is from Kentucky and they stayed at the Blue Swallow the night we did. we talked about Route 66, motorcycles, etc. and parted ways. The Seaba Motorcycle Museum in Warwick was our next stop, but we arrived to find they’re closed on Wednesday. This place looked real cool and we’re going to hit it on the ride home.

We continued on Route 66 to The Rock Cafe in Stroud for lunch. The Rock Cafe was nearly destroyed by fire in 2008 and was rebuilt. Luckily it’s really made on rock so the main structure survived. When we walked inside Jeff and Bob were there! We figured we should take pictures now since we’re friends and Jeff’ going to visit the dealership when he gets back. The burgers were great and the people in the Rock Cafe are real nice.

At this point we’d traveled about 60 miles in just under three hours. So we picked up the pace a little. All these little towns are incredible and you could probably spend most of a day exploring each one. Our next stop other than gas near Tulsa was the Rainbow Bridge near Riverton Kansas. Just passed Galena Kansas and the Missouri border we followed an “Old Route 66” marker directed us to a narrow road in a wooded area, over an old bridge and back into Kansas. It was an old alignment and it dropped us into a section of Galena that looks like Winslow, or Winslow looks like it. Joplin was just up the road so we went looking for a good steak dinner.

Google said Wilders and they were right. The steaks were perfect and as usual the people we met were very friendly.

After we ordered I remembered the Boots Motel had just reopened and I thought it was near. We called, they were twenty miles away, and they had a room. This place should be a blog post of it’s own. They are in the process of restoring it and are doing it as it stood in 1946. Not inspired by 1946 but accurate 1946. The rooms are larger than expected in a motel of this era and are very comfortable. You hardcore history fans need to stay here.

When I get back home and have a computer I’ll do a post with links and brief descriptions of the highlights of the trip.

Don’t know where we’ll be tonight!

Jeff and Bob at the Rock Cafe in Stroud, OK. good food and nice people, not a tourist trap.